Why We Need to Rethink the Discourse on Body Positivity

As India awaits the launch of obesity drug, Mounjaro, the debate on weight loss drugs and body image continues

- Sumitra Nair

In July 2024, Eli Lilly and Co., the pharmaceutical company, announced that it has secured the first approvals for the import and sale of its diabetes and obesity medication, Tirzepatide—sold under the name Mounjaro—in India in 2025. The company, according to various new reports, further stated that the medication would be competitively priced for the Indian market. The arrival of Mounjaro comes at an opportune time when you consider reports that peg India as a country with a high obese population. A 2021 Lancet report found that India had the third largest obese population following the US and China. A 2024 report, conducted by NCD Risk Factor Collaboration and published in Lancet, stated that around 80 million Indians, including 10 million children between the ages of 5–19 years, were classified as obese.

“While (Eli Lilly’s) injectables have got approval by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), they haven’t been launched yet. Marketing and, consecutively, sales of these drugs will happen only by mid-2025,” informs Mumbai-based Dr Rajiv Kovil, head of diabetology at Zandra Healthcare. He adds, however, that oral pills of semaglutide (a prescription glucagon-like peptide-1 or GLP-1) has been available in our country since the last 2.5 years, under the brand name, Rybelsus.